During the recent conference call with analysts for Tesla’s first quarter 2016, co-founder and CTO JB Straubel said that we shouldn’t focus too much on Tesla’s previously stated goal of 35 GWh of battery cell production at the Gigafactory, and 50 GWh of battery pack output.

Straubel said that Tesla was prepared to adjust the battery factory output according to the higher than anticipated demand for the Model 3 after the company received over 373,000 pre-orders. Tesla’s battery output at the factory depends significantly on Panasonic and now the Japanese battery maker says that it would move up its investment schedule if asked by Tesla.

Panasonic;s responsibilities at the plant mainly revolve around cell manufacturing workers and the necessary equipment. The building itself is Tesla’s responsibility:

The factory is still under construction and currently only the first phase is up with an 800,000-square-foot footprint and 1.9 million square feet of space. Once completed, the Gigafactory is expected to have a total operational space of about 13 million square feet, which should result in the building with the biggest footprint on earth.

Now Tesla and Panasonic plan to start battery cell production at the Gigafactory later this year. It would explain Panasonic’s recent investment ramp up, which could even accelerate due to Tesla’s planned production ramp up for the Model 3, as per Ito’s comment today.